DVD Sales - Notorious has Noteworthy Opening

May 10th, 2009

It was a slow week for newreleases with none coming close to selling 1 million units. However, this is common during this part of the year, and we still saw two new releases topping the chart. The best of these was Notorious, which sold 606,000 units generating $14.54 million in revenue.
The Wrestler was second with 400,000 units sold and $7.49 million in revenue, which is excellent for a limited release. Twilight finally came out on Blu-ray in all stores, and the advance buzz helped the film sell 12% more DVDs this past weekend, as it landed in third place with 333,000 units over the week. In total the film has earned $139.48 million from 7.72 million units sold. The Spirit fell from first to four, but it was only down 32% to 227,000 units / $5.43 million for the week and 561,000 units / $11.69 million after two. The Day the Earth Stood Still fell to fifth place with 205,000 unit sold over the week for a three-week total of 1.38 million units and $23.15 million.

The next best wide release was Frost/Nixon in ninth place with 182,000 units / $3.44 million, which is a strong start for a limited release. Likewise, Caprica landed in 11th place with 170,000 units and $3.29 million, which is a strong start for a Direct-to-DVD release. The final new release to chart was Ron White - Behavioral Problems with 72,000 units and $790,000. This was enough for 21st place, which is a strong start for a stand-upconcert DVD.

Overall it was a good week, when you take into account the weak slate of releases.

On the other hand, Blu-ray sales were fantastic, despite the weak slate of releases. Total sales nearly doubled from $10.8 million last week to $19.4 million this week. On the other hand, this was only 44% higher than the same weekend last year, which is below average for the year. Compared to DVDs, Blu-ray earned 10.5% of total sales and represented 14% of the Top 20 Comparison. This is the best ratios for the format since the post-Christmas sales ended. As for the best individual seller, it was The Wrestler, which sold just over 90,000 units, and not Notorious, which was in a close second with 85,000 units.